Conditions versus importing via Global Project Linking

[Cecily]

What are people's views on the relative merits of these ways of sharing content?

Is it better to have one project with conditional flags and multiple targets or separate projects that are linked to share/import certain topics? (I find snippets work well with both scenarios, so didn't include them in the title of this post.)

I've used both and casting aside problems I had with GPL (see http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =13&t=7379) am still not quite decided, but here are my thoughts so far (please add or disagree):

Linking

• * Good when it works. (I'm still not quite clear about the point/difference/interaction between the Include Files edit/filter and when you select individual file in the (Re)Import dialog.)
  * Easy to set up and maintain (once you realise you must specify things in the Include Files field as well as the Import dialog).
  * Good when it's a few, self-contained topics in common.
  * There are issues about the hyperlinks in topics you import, to which there is no easy answer:
  • ** Use the flimpfl setting to import all linked topics too (but you may not want them all in the destination);
    ** Remove the links in the source/parent (but you probably put them there because they were useful);
    ** Remove the links in the destination and when prompted, opt to break the link (but then it won't be updated if changes are made in the source/parent);
    ** Set condition flags in the source/parent for the hyperlinks and use a conditional build in the destination to exclude flagged text, not forgetting to import the condition tag set (*.flcts), though that is somewhat fiddly.

Conditional flags with multiple targets

• * Can be fiddly, but is perhaps necessary when it's not just whole topics that are conditional, but also individual words, paragraphs, hyperlinks and images.
  * Offers more permutations of sharing; no implied parent/child projects.

[*]PS How do you do bullets here?[/*]

NOTE TO MODERATOR - Just realised this topic may be better in Tips and Tricks. I won't mind if you move it.

[LTinker68]

[*]PS How do you do bullets here?[/*]

Just like that, actually. Click the List or List= icon to start the list (use List=1 to do a numbered list), then use [*] to designate your bullet items. (No ending tag, just one [*] at the start of each bullet.)

As for conditional and global linking... Why is it either/or? I haven't played with global project linking because, unfortunately, I can't always use the same set of stylesheets, topics, etc., because the help is stylized to the client. However, if we start doing more internal help or company-branded help, then I'd look into global linking because then I could share the stylesheets and some common topics. I'd still keep my project separate because they may be totally different products. I don't want Software ABC's help to be the same project as Software XYZ's help because other than the stylesheet and skin and "how to use help" and "getting additional help" topics, there wouldn't be anything in common between them.

Conditions are a totally separate animal. One place I worked at a few years ago had a basic, standard, and pro version of the software. In that situation, I'd use one project with multiple targets and would associate the appropriate condition to the appropriate blocks of text or topics. I definitely wouldn't use three projects and do project linking between them just to pull the basic topics into the standard project and the basic and standard topics into the pro project. Much easier to keep it all in one project and use conditions.

[Cecily]

• It isn't necessarily either or; I was just comparing their relative merits and was thinking aloud and ahead as to what circumstances I would use which methods in future projects. That said, I want to avoid needless complexity, especially as a project I start may end up being worked on by another author and vice versa.
• Yes, I used conditions for standard and pro versions of a product that also had separate wizard help and it works well. Although it got quite complicated, I think the complexity came from the interlinking of the different levels of the product and inevitably needed to be reflected in the help.
• I'm now working on three separate but closely related applications, so have used GPL to import a shared glossary, stylesheet and a couple of topics.

Thanks for the bullet info. I thought I'd tried every permutation, but I obviously omitted that one.